AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Trapped behind barbed wire in an alien land, a man used to guarding his secrets is compelled to set the record straight. Imagine a faraway country that was once a friend of the West becoming the enemy, its people isolated and savagely repressed by a tyrant known as Great Uncle. As one of the country's most celebrated writers and a war hero, the storyteller has a better life than most, until he is made an offer he can't refuse. He must write a great novel, telling of the suffering of his people under the enemy's cruel economic sanctions and portraying Great Uncle as their saviour. This masterpiece must be completed in time for its international debut in three months, or else. If the writer cannot, or will not, meet the tyrant's deadline, he and anyone he cares for will pay the ultimate price. Stark, terrifying and utterly compelling, The Tyrant's Novel is both a gripping thriller and a chilling glimpse of a fictional world that seems all too real. (Source: LibrariesAustralia)

Notes

Dedication: To my brother, John Patrick, the good practitioner, with fraternal love

Listed in The New York Times Book Review's list of Notable Books for 2004.

Listed among the New York Public Library's 25 books to remember from 2004.

Works about this Work

A National (Diasporic?) Living Treasure : Thomas KeneallyPaul Sharrad,
2015single work criticism — Appears in:
Le Simplegadi,November
no.
142015;(p. 20-27)AbstractAlthough Thomas Keneally is firmly located as a national figure, his international literary career and his novels’ inspection of colonial exile, Aboriginal alienation, and movements of people throughout history reflect aspects of diasporic experience, while pushing the term itself into wider meaning of the transnational.

Writing the Self/ Writing the Other in Thomas Keneally’s 'The Tyrant’s Novel' and Inaam Kachachi’s 'The American Granddaughter'Fadwa K. AbdelRahman,
2012single work criticism — Appears in:
Postcolonial Text,vol.
7no.
32012;Abstract'Thomas Keneally's The Tyrant's Novel (2004) and Inaam Kachachi's The American Granddaughter (2008) both deal with the crisis in Iraq and its ramifications. Recognizing the important ideological and humanistic role played by literature, both writers choose to assume their moral responsibility in the face of injustice, war and violence. The paper attempts to show how each of them follows a humanistic approach that advocates human rights and equality. It also compares how each evades or otherwise succumbs to the pitfalls of Humanism that turns the sign "human' to a universal category representing humanity according to the Western model. In so doing it examines how the fact of their coming from opposite sides of the cultural divide influences the cross-cultural negotiation of publicly disseminated representations of both the self and its other(s).' [Author's abstract]

Should I ... Or Shouldn't I?Malcolm Knox,
2005single work criticism — Appears in:
Australian Author,Decembervol.
37no.
32005;(p. 8-12)AbstractIn this work Malcolm Knox considers the ethics of publishing and the risk of losing friends or contact with family when a character in a novel shows resemblances.

Only the Names Have Been ChangedCaroline Baum,
2003single work essay — Appears in:
The Age,19 July2003;(p. 8)The Sydney Morning Herald,12-13 July2003;(p. 4-5)AbstractBaum analyses her experience of being fictionalised as the character 'Alice' in the novel The Tyrant's Novel and comments on other occasions, known to her, of writers fictionalising 'real' people with little apparent disguise.

Only the Names Have Been ChangedCaroline Baum,
2003single work essay — Appears in:
The Age,19 July2003;(p. 8)The Sydney Morning Herald,12-13 July2003;(p. 4-5)AbstractBaum analyses her experience of being fictionalised as the character 'Alice' in the novel The Tyrant's Novel and comments on other occasions, known to her, of writers fictionalising 'real' people with little apparent disguise.

Should I ... Or Shouldn't I?Malcolm Knox,
2005single work criticism — Appears in:
Australian Author,Decembervol.
37no.
32005;(p. 8-12)AbstractIn this work Malcolm Knox considers the ethics of publishing and the risk of losing friends or contact with family when a character in a novel shows resemblances.

Writing the Self/ Writing the Other in Thomas Keneally’s 'The Tyrant’s Novel' and Inaam Kachachi’s 'The American Granddaughter'Fadwa K. AbdelRahman,
2012single work criticism — Appears in:
Postcolonial Text,vol.
7no.
32012;Abstract'Thomas Keneally's The Tyrant's Novel (2004) and Inaam Kachachi's The American Granddaughter (2008) both deal with the crisis in Iraq and its ramifications. Recognizing the important ideological and humanistic role played by literature, both writers choose to assume their moral responsibility in the face of injustice, war and violence. The paper attempts to show how each of them follows a humanistic approach that advocates human rights and equality. It also compares how each evades or otherwise succumbs to the pitfalls of Humanism that turns the sign "human' to a universal category representing humanity according to the Western model. In so doing it examines how the fact of their coming from opposite sides of the cultural divide influences the cross-cultural negotiation of publicly disseminated representations of both the self and its other(s).' [Author's abstract]

A National (Diasporic?) Living Treasure : Thomas KeneallyPaul Sharrad,
2015single work criticism — Appears in:
Le Simplegadi,November
no.
142015;(p. 20-27)AbstractAlthough Thomas Keneally is firmly located as a national figure, his international literary career and his novels’ inspection of colonial exile, Aboriginal alienation, and movements of people throughout history reflect aspects of diasporic experience, while pushing the term itself into wider meaning of the transnational.